By Daniel Cheong
Humans are social creatures. That’s how it’s been for a long time. From the Paleolithic cavemen to the warring social classes of medieval Europe, there has been a never-ending social connection between humans that has defined our species. However, recent innovations from the past century are changing this. The growth of technology has changed the way we interact with one another. This is done mainly through social networking services (SNS) such as Instagram, and I’m sure all of us are aware of just how much things have changed as a result of SNSs: you remember your grandma lecturing you about the “good ol’ days” when kids actually talked to each other instead of using their phones? Well, your grandmother is right. She’s a living witness giving testimony to the contrast between how people socialize with and without SNS.
To understand why this change is dangerous for public health, we have to first understand why it happens at all. Let’s take Facebook as an example. Facebook started as a small computer science project from some college students. It created online profiles for students at Harvard, displaying the student’s face-shot, major, and interests, and students could view other students.3 I think of it as an evolved version of flipping through yearbook photos gossiping about people you recognize. The point is that there was no harm when it first started. It helped people learn about new people. Yes, I guess it could have worsened gossip, but that’s besides the point. The real problem arises when Facebook gets bigger, expanding from Harvard to the rest of the Ivy League, and then to the rest of the nation.
When you control an organization that an entire nation uses regularly, there’s going to be potential to make money. In Facebook’s case, the money-maker was advertisements, and to maximize profit, Facebook needed to maximize screen time.4 They need to keep you on their platform as long as they can. How do they do this? They extensively, very extensively, collect data on your life, feed that data into advanced computer algorithms, and provide you with content that’s predicted to interest you most.5 This is common knowledge. If you’ve taken a course in deep learning or big data manipulation, you’re probably familiar with the sheer sophistication of the computer science behind these algorithms. These complex supercomputers crunch away at the data Facebook collects from you to keep you on the platform as long as possible.5 The effects of this, I’m sure, most of us have experienced before. The next time you find yourself scrolling endless on TikTok, think about the supercomputers crunching away on your data, lassoing you into addiction.
Being chronically online has been proven to lead to increased risk for depression and overall decline in mental health.1 In the case of social media, being chronically online increases your chance of experiencing FOMO—fear of missing out. FOMO has been around before technology, but the ease of access to other people’s lives increases cases of FOMO.1 Also, social media allows you to peek into the lives of far greater numbers of people than you would be able to without it. This exposes you to the extreme, outlier lifestyles that are unrealistically leisurely and pleasurable, pushing you to set unrealistic expectations and grow depressed when you do not meet them.
In addition, being chronically online decreases people’s drives to socialize.2 Being able to log onto Instagram through your phone whenever and wherever gives you an easy-way-out of any social interaction. When a social gathering is not going well for a person, the person can now go on his or her phone and feel better about not socializing because they look like they are actually socializing with other people online. Doing this over and over again weakens your social skills, making it more difficult to meet new people and increasing your levels of stress. If action is not taken to prevent these harmful effects, it could have significant effects on public health.
Now, though it may seem like it, the problem itself is not SNS. The problem lies within Big Tech and the methods that Big Tech utilizes to maximize growth and profit. SNSs like Instagram can be used to meet new people and make connections with mutual friends you otherwise would not have met. The harmfulness of Instagram comes from its complex algorithms that meticulously pulls you in, taking control of you and your ability to sign off. It is a common method used by other Big Tech companies: Amazon uses it to display ads, and Google uses it to recommend YouTube videos. Using these algorithms is so effective at creating profit that it would be foolish if Big Tech companies did not use them.
This is the reality of today’s social environment. To change it, individuals and public health systems should step forward. Institutions with direct connections with children and young people should encourage face-to-face interactions and teach students to be cautious of using technology too much. K-12 schools, for example, could implement strict anti-phone policies during school hours, or more simply punish phone use during class and discourage phone use during school recess. Teachers as role models should make a point to hide their social media in efforts to not depict social media as a perfectly safe tool. Also, individuals should not obsess over unrealistic lifestyles seen on social media. More fundamentally, people should be aware of how erroneous social media is as a representation of the real world. People should make a point to separate social media from their social lives—on a Friday night out with friends, try to minimize how often you check your social media.
College students are arguably the one of the most socially connected demographics, and as the generation sprouting to soon fill the jobs and roles of the world and to exert huge influence on how society functions, it is crucial that we become active proponents against the negative effects of Social Networking Services. It is my opinion that humans are an evolving species, and it is impossible to deny all changes and innovations that we as a species create; rather, it is in our best interest to learn to address dangers as dangers and to avoid hedonistically indulging in unexplored benefits.
References
- Robinson, Lawrence. “Social Media and Mental Health.” HelpGuide.Org, 29 Mar. 2023, www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm#:~:text=However%2C%20multiple%20studies%20have%20found,about%20your%20life%20or%20appearance.
- “What Does Chronically Online Mean?: Later Glossary.” Later Social Media Marketing, later.com/social-media-glossary/chronically-online/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2023.
- “Facebook Launches.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/facebook-launches-mark-zuckerberg. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.
- Johnston, Matthew. “How Does Facebook (Meta) Make Money?” Investopedia, Investopedia, www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/120114/how-does-facebook-fb-make-money.asp. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.
- Zayed, AUTHOR: Ahmed, et al. “Facebook Addiction Symptoms, Causes, and Effects.” The Diamond Rehab Thailand, 25 Apr. 2023, diamondrehabthailand.com/what-is-facebook-addiction/#:~:text=Facebook%20is%20addictive%20because%20it,and%20latest%20developments%2C%20and%20more.